Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Flacco to Denver, Your Voicemails

Episode Date: February 14, 2019

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Welcome in to another edition of Locked On Titans. I'm Jimmy Morris, joined by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you today? Doing good, man. What's up? Not a whole lot. We're going to do some voicemails today and got one piece of news we'll talk a little bit about. Before we do that, I want to remind you that we write for MuseumMiracles.com. We're covering Titans for SB Nation. So you can check us out there. You can also follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry is at TLambertRrt. You can get the podcast, search out Locked On Titans. And you can also play us on your smart speaker,

whether it be in your house, your car, whatever. Just say, play podcast Locked On Titans, and you will get us there. We also have a voicemail line, which, like I said, we will be doing some of those later on in the show here. If you want to get in on that for next week,

you can call 615-787-8762. Leave us a message. Give us about a minute, and we'll talk about it on the show, whether it's a question, a comment, whatever it may be. All right, so big news that came out, I guess on Wednesday,

the Broncos and Ravens have agreed to a trade for Joe Flacco. So Joe Flacco going to the Ravens. I didn't ever see what the Broncos were supposed to do. I mean, what the Broncos understood. Did you see that? No, no, I don't think it's come out. Okay, I don't guess that's been reported yet.

But this is weird to me. I mean, Joe Flacco I guess is fine if you really need a quarterback, but is he better than Case Keenum? That would be my biggest question in this thing. And you've got to pay him a bunch of money, so I don't know how much sense this one makes. No, I don't even think it's an upgrade. You know, I know he's got the arm.

I saw a quote from somebody that retweeted from a Broncos person that said, Flacco makes you cover every blade of grass. I mean, I just think these front offices still, to this day, overvalue that arm strength. It's different when you've got a guy like Patrick Mahomes, who's mobile and does all this extra stuff, but Joe Flacco can't move. He just seems like a dinosaur in today's NFL.

It was pretty clear to me that he was done. There's a reason he didn't come back. There's a reason they went with Lamar Jackson, who literally struggles to throw the football. It's an odd move to me. I thought they would try and go younger, try and draft one. But John Elway, it's funny. Everyone thought he was this great thing when Peyton Manning was in town.

Peyton Manning retires, and we're kind of seeing the true colors of Elway come out. Yeah, that's the thing. You know, that's the last smart move he's made as far as quarterbacks are concerned, for sure. And, like you said, going back to Peyton Manning. And now you've done this. You've got a bunch of money tied up now in quarterbacks. A guy that's not really any good. I don't know if they'll try to restructure or what.

Because I don't think very much of it's guarantees. I guess if it is a one-year deal, draft a guy. If you think you've got somebody you want to come in and sit behind Flacco or whatever it may be. But still, they're giving up something to get him, and I just don't know. It just doesn't make sense to me why you would, you know, if they wanted to sign Flacco in free agency, that would be one thing. I mean, I still don't necessarily think it's a good idea,

but I just think if you're going to trade for a guy, it needs to be an upgrade. You need to see some kind of value there. And I just, I don't see it. I don't see how it's anything better than Case Keenum. Like you said, I mean, he does have the arm, or he did have the arm, but we haven't really seen much of that. I mean, he did some of that earlier in the year. But I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. It's just like you said, and the biggest thing to me is the fact they didn't bring him back. I mean, you get to Lamar Jackson in the future and all that stuff, but if you saw, if you watched him play, it was clear that he wasn't ready right now. And so the Ravens would have been better served definitely for 2018, but maybe even beyond. I mean, I get experience and all that kind of stuff. But if a guy's not ready, like Lamar Jackson didn't seem to be ready from a passing standpoint, it seems to me like you would benefit him more from working with him longer

before throwing him out there and letting some of those things happen. I mean, Lamar Jackson had some good games, but most of that was rushing. And this one just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Yeah, and it's one year after they gave Case Keenum $20-something million to come in and take over the quarterback position. Now they're going in a totally different direction. I just don't know when teams are going to learn to stop paying very, very average quarterbacks $20 million.

I mean, you saw the Cardinals do it with Sam Bradford. You saw Mike Glennon in Chicago. It goes on and on and on. So I just don't understand how front offices can be this dumb and get so desperate at the quarterback position. There's only so many that go around. I just don't think you can force it. Hopefully the Titans don't get into this position.

We've talked a lot about what's coming in the next two years, potentially with Marcus Mariota. This is definitely the situation you don't want to be in. But just to kind of cap off Joe Flacco, kind of sad that he's not going to be a Jacksonville Jackal. I was looking forward to that. It made too much sense. Yeah, absolutely.

But like you're saying, I mean, when you're giving these guys $20 million, a couple things on that. One, all these people that say the Titans just signed Marcus Mariota for some, like, you know, four-year $40 million deal. You see how much money these other guys are getting. And so that's why you should know that that's not possible. Two, we've seen it. I mean, you're better off drafting a quarterback and having him cheap

and, you know, building up around him if you're going to not have an Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees. I mean, those types of guys. Obviously, you can find a franchise guy, pay him whatever. But these guys that you're trying to make into that that just aren't those guys, I just think you're better off long-term building your team with, you know, an average guy that you're not paying that much money to and building stuff around him.

So anyway, we'll see how it plays out. But it's just something that, you know, just when you see that report, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Coming up, we'll get into the voicemails. Our first one is Don from L.A. who takes us from one Ravens quarterback we hate to another. Going back to the reference about Trent Dilfer's breakdown of Marcus Mariota, I just thought this was such an excellent piece. I really hope you guys can maybe even have a full show on what he said.

But he talked about Marcus Mariota's throwing motion, and he talked about how on the third step of his throw, the ball is behind his head and not in his cylinder. So, you know, when it comes to certain throws, he has a difficult time with accuracy, and it just makes me really think about the Titans in general, and I start thinking about, you know, stuff like the back shoulder throws, and, you know, I think this year was the first time I saw pictures or, like, videos in camp of them doing the drill where Pat O'Hara had, you know, the pads, and he's hitting Marcus Mariota, and Marcus had to keep two hands on the ball. And it really made me wonder, what are the Titans doing?

Like, it feels like they don't – these are things that good teams do on a regular basis, and, you know, it just seems like we're kind of getting guys that aren't honing the skills of a young quarterback like they should be. You know, Marcus, he's about to be in his fifth year, aren't honing the skills of a young quarterback like they should be. You know, Marcus, he's about to be in his fifth year, and he's doing some things that, you know, he should have been doing in his first year. And I really kind of wonder, you know,

if it has something to do with what Dilfer said about, you know, coaches playing or coaching for themselves, or are we just, you know, is it just a small market team thing? I don't know. I just want to get your take on that. Thanks again, guys. Bye. Yeah, I listened to that whole interview. It was Trent Dilfer on the Midday 180.

I think he did it. We got the Super Bowl. I ended up listening to it this week because Dilfer's been hired as the high school football coach at Lipscomb Academy, which is where I went to high school. So kind of interesting there. But I thought his stuff on Mariota was really good. He still is a firm believer in Mariota, was apparently a big pusher of, you know, Mariota when he was coming out in the draft.

I don't remember back that far to what he said, but said he's always been a Mariota guy. Talked about some things that the team could do to help him have success. And basically said, you know, from everything that he's watched with Marcus, that he just still hasn't been in the right system. Talked about limiting reads and sides of the field and all that kind of stuff, stuff that we've heard about and talked about a little bit. But one interesting point that he made was basically how Marcus holds the ball

as he goes through his progressions and that basically by the time he gets to the third receiver, he's got the ball behind his head instead of in his cylinder is what Dilfer said. And so that affects accuracy. So just talking about limiting his reads and that kind of stuff there. So, I mean, I thought it was pretty interesting. Stuff that I, you know, I still do have faith that Marcus Mariota can be good. The faith is not nearly as strong as it used to be. But it was good to hear a guy like Dilfer who, I mean, listen,

I'm warming up to Dilfer a little bit, a guy that I've hated for a really long time, and simply because he was the Ravens quarterback when they won the Super Bowl, really nothing more to it than that. But it was really good to hear a guy that puts in as much work as Dilfer does. We know that he talked about it. If you go back and listen to that interview, Midday 180 podcast, all that stuff, you can find that there. But you can tell that he's a guy that really loves doing the work,

really loves breaking down film and that kind of stuff, still a coach at the Elite 11 and that kind of stuff. But really good to hear a guy like that still have faith in Marcus. Talk about how much he saw in Marcus coming out and talking about some things that he thought the Titans could do for Marcus to be successful.

Anyway, yeah, just promising to hear that and hopefully that's something that comes to fruition in this next season. Alright, up next we have Bruce from Chattanooga who has an apology for terry hey guys bruce again from chattanooga terry uh sorry for dragging him into that tight end conversation on twitter i was just i was so excited about the possibility of drafting you know four tight ends and four consecutive rounds and revamping the offense of the NFL. But I had a question about Ciprian and Vaccaro with Bree signing a new three-year,

like, I don't know, $22 million deal or something like that today. Could you all play out some of the best scenarios for Ciprian and Vaccaro and what it would look like to re-sign them, especially with how much it's going to cost. Also some of the more realistic opportunities that are there for the team or what would be best for our cap space moving forward. Because I don't think there's a fan who doesn't prefer Vaccaro, but it's looking like he's going to be pretty expensive. So, yeah, love to hear you all's thoughts on that

and what would be kind of the best thing to do financially in order to get the best guys out there. Thanks so much, guys. Love the show. Well, Brooks, I appreciate the apology. I tried real, really, I mean really, really hard to stay off Twitter that day. It just seemed like Titan's Twitter was engaged in some group think there by some prominent members of Titans Twitter

with the tight end talk. So I think you all know how we feel about that, and we're not fans of it. But on to the safeties, it's become a more interesting conversation this week just seeing what Eric Reid got, three years, $22 million. That's pretty pricey Reid got, three years, $22 million, that's pretty pricey. That's probably what Kenny Vaccaro is thinking he's worth, and quite honestly, that probably is what he's worth. Is John Robinson willing to pay that? I don't think so.

It obviously depends on the health of Jonathan Ziprian, and it depends on what Dean Pease sees in him. Dean Pease hasn't worked with Ziprian yet. Lost the whole year last year. Dick LeBeau used Ziprian in some different ways, some ways that we didn't agree with. So I think the Titans would get worse on the field, but it just might not make sense money-wise to bring back Vaccaro. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing.

So you've still got Cipri under contract for one more year. He's got a cap number of basically $6.25 million. You could save $4.75 million if you cut him. Can they get Kenny Vaccar car over cheaper than that? I mean, you could maybe work it into a cheaper cap number in year one. It looks like Eric Reid's contract, his cap in year one is only like $4.4 million, and it goes to $8 million in 2020, and then $9.5 million in 2021. So, I mean, yeah, there's an area where they could work it to maybe be cheaper this year.

But how much money are you going to tie up in safety? We talked about this a little bit in the basketball episodes. Kevin Byard's getting paid at some point. It could be as early as this season. You know, you're going to pay him more than these guys. I think he can do more. So how much money are you going to tie up in safety? They drafted Dane Cruikshank.

So, you know, hopefully, I mean, I would assume the plan is for him to be ready to, you know, at least get a shot at one of those positions. And so if you can get something to where, I don't know, you're not going to have Vaccaro and Cipri. I think it's the bottom line. Titans are in a spot where they have some cap space, but they don't have a ton anymore. So it's really going to come down to who's cheaper in 2019. I think we both agree that Vaccaro is the better player,

but you've got to consider money and all that at this point, too. And then it'll just be interesting to see how long Vaccaro is willing to wait. We saw last offseason both of these guys, Reed and Vaccaro. You know, they didn't sign Vaccaro until right when camp was opening. Whenever camp had opened, you know, when Cyprian got hurt. And then, you know, Eric Reid didn't sign until the end of the season. So if the market moves a little bit faster this season, then Vaccaro might get an offer from somebody else that's more than the Titans are willing to give him.

So, yeah, like you said, I mean, I think this deal makes it a little bit harder for the Titans to get Vaccaro, at least at, you know, kind of a bargain deal. So they'll just become, is there somebody else that's willing to pay him? And if not, how long will he wait? How much does that number drop? So that's something that's going to be interesting to watch as free agency opens here in the next little bit. All right, we will finish up with a voicemail from Travis asking about free agent water

receivers. This is Travis Framing from Hamilton, Mississippi. I was just wondering if I could get y'all's opinion on some of the free agent receivers. I know y'all talked about a few names, but if y'all could go into a little more detail about three or four of them and maybe talk about their styles and other things, but how on top of that, Corey Davis things. I really appreciate it. Love y'all's show. Thank you. Alright, so this is

obviously everyone's favorite thing to discuss this time of year. It's receivers, you know, and it's the Titans. So, obviously they need one. They need one every year, it seems. A lot of names out there. Not a lot of star power, though.

That's going to create kind of this deal where you're going to see some overpaying. And as Jimmy said, the Titans need to overpay for a couple of these receivers. So you just look at the names. It's really what you want. I think the Titans need a downfield threat. You look at guys like Tyrell Williams. You look at John Brown. Maybe a guy like Deshaun Jackson.

If you can figure out what he's got left in the tank. And then you've got different guys like slot guys, Adam Humphreys. You've got Golden Tate. You've got Randall Cobb. I know Titans fans are going to be nuts about Randall Cobb.

All those types of guys fit what the Titans need. The Titans honestly just need bodies. They need proven vets that can get the job done. So I think me and Jimmy are on the same page. I think a lot of us are on the same page when we say the Titans need to come away with two of these guys. So I think the leader in the clubhouse for me is probably John Brown. He's suddenly 29 years old but did a lot of good things for the Cardinals, came back, looked like himself again with the Ravens,

got taken out of the offense when Lamar Jackson was inserted in. But he was pretty good with Joe Flacco. So I think he would give the Titans some sort of dynamic that they don't have down the field. I don't really want to see them go barking up the Deshaun Jackson tree. I just think there's some, I think he's going to be expensive. You know, he's 32 years old. How much does he have left in the tank, really?

So, you know, John Brown, Tyrell Williams, those are my two right now. Yeah, I think the good news for the Titans is that you have two or three guys that are kind of similar. You would think that that would drive the price down on maybe a couple of them. We talk about if you need a downfield

threat, you've got Tyrell Williams and John Brown that are set to become free agents. Sean Jackson could be a guy that gets cut because of his cap number and John Brown that are set to become free agents. Deshaun Jackson could be a guy that gets cut because of his cap number. I mean, I think he's set to make 11 plus million in 2019. I don't see the Buccaneers paying him that. And then when you get into the spot, guys, you've got

Golden Tate, you've got Adam Humphries, you've got Cole Beasley. So, I mean, you've got some options. Randall Cobb, like you said, you've got some options there. Pierre Garçon, the 49ers are not picking up his option. He's 32. But, you know, there's going to be some options there for some guys that can actually come in here and help. Now, like you're saying, I mean, I guess a report came out yesterday that Adam Humphreys wants $8 million a year.

But, listen, I would be really, really surprised if somebody's going to pay Adam Humphreys $8 million a year. I think he's a good player. I think he's a player that the Titans could use to come in here and be successful. But I don't want to see them pay him $8 million a year. But with that being said, whatever number it is that you have in your head that a guy like Tyrell Williams or John Brown or whatever is going to get, I think you need to adjust it up because that's what happens in free agency.

And I think the Titans need to be willing to go there. I understand successful teams are built through the draft. You don't want to spend all your money in free agency. Nobody wants us to be the Washington Redskins where they're spending all this money on all these guys. Well, some people want that. But people that have watched these things and how they play out realize that that's not the way you successfully build a long-term winner.

But they're going to have to at some point come off the bench and get some guys in here. Especially this year, if you want to see what Marcus Mariota really is, they're going to have to put some stuff around him. And if that means overpaying in free agency for a wide receiver or two, I think it might be time for them to do that. Now again, the names we can debate, all that kind of stuff, but I mean, are you with me here? If they're really serious about this, they can't hold

just to this, well we have this guy valued at this number, and if we offer that to him and he gets a higher offer from somewhere else, we're just out. I don't think they can afford to do that this time, because I feel like they did it last year, and we saw how higher offer from somewhere else, we're just out. I don't think they can afford to do that this time because I feel like they did it last year and we saw how it worked out. Yeah, you can't really see what you have in Marcus Mariota if you throw Taewon Taylor back out there, Tasha Sharp back out there.

You can't just rely on these young receivers to make the big leap. Last year was a little different. It was Rashard Matthews. We kind of sort of give them a pass. But they've got a chance to make it right. They certainly need to do it. You know, they don't have a ton of cap room, but they've got enough cap room to go get some veteran presence

and put that around Marcus Mariota. So it's something that he hasn't really had too much of. You know, you've had Rashard Matthews, you've had Eric Decker, but for the most part it's been a bunch of guys that you've drafted and are trying to make work. So, I mean, up and down this list of free agent receivers that are guys that are better than what's currently on the roster, you know, you'd like to see them add the names that we've already talked about.

But, you know, you look down this list, Jermaine Curse, Demarius Thomas, Chris Conley, you know, Chris Hogan, you know, all these guys are better. And that says something about how bad the Titans have been at the position. Just from a consistency standpoint, from a can Marcus rely on you to catch the ball standpoint, I mean, it's really simple stuff we're talking about here. It should be a simple fix. I would love to see John Robinson have this addressed before the draft. Yeah, and that's the thing.

Like you said, I mean, we think Corey Davis is good. Outside of that, pretty much any of these guys would be an upgrade over what they currently have. So that's going to be an interesting thing to watch. Again, keep in mind, some of the names that are out there right now will never actually hit the market because they'll be re-signed by their own teams and there could be some guys cut that we're not

even thinking about right now. It could be a little bit different list when we get to that time. Alright, we appreciate you listening again to this episode of Locked on Titans. Again, if you want to leave us a voicemail to talk about next week, 615-787-8762. That's the number.

Leave us a voicemail, comment, question, whatever it is, and we'll be glad to talk about it next week. Follow us on Twitter at jmorsmcm. Terry's at TLambertRTT. Again, if you have a smart speaker, just say, Play Podcast Locked on Titans, and you'll be able to play the last episode as soon as it's available. So for Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks for listening to Locked on Titans,

and we'll talk to you again next week.